A post shared by Solomon Family (@nataliesuleman) on Aug 22, 2016 at 1:57pm PDT

Suleman admitted that she decided to turn her life around when a stranger approached her at a strip club she was working at.

“I was in a strip club in Florida in February 2013, and this very tall man, this stranger came in,” she told New Idea.

“He walked straight to me and looked straight into my eyes. He took my hand and grabbed my arm and said in a very gentle, but firm way: ‘You don’t have to do this.’ He repeated it five times,” she added.

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“I knew I had to be my healthy self again. I didn’t want my kids not to have a mum.”

Today, Suleman is back in the workforce and working as a counsellor.

“I went back to my life as a counsellor. I went back and my kids had a healthy, happy life,” she explained on The Doctors in 2016.

A post shared by Solomon Family (@nataliesuleman) on Nov 24, 2016 at 10:01am PST

Although the years have passed since the birth of the octuplets, the physical and mental effects of their birth and the resulting backlash is still prominent.

“I have PTSD from all the reporters coming in over the years,” she told The New York Times.

“My back is broken because of the last pregnancy,” she added.

“Four out of the five discs in my lumbar spine are ruptured, herniated fully.And I have irreparable sacral damage. And I have peripheral neuropathy. I haven’t felt my toes on my foot on the right side for many years, and my fingers are numb all the time every day. The pregnancy caused it all.”

Where are Octomum’s children now?

Ranging in age from nine to 17 years old, Suleman’s children – Ameerah, Calyssa, Elijah, Jonah, Joshua, Aidan, Isaiah, Noah, Josiah, Makai, Jeremiah, Maliah, Nariah, and Caleb – have certainly grown up since the controversial birth of ‘the eight’.

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These days, all 14 children are in school with Suleman using a mini bus to drop the children off at six different schools each morning.

In the afternoons, Suleman makes the same trip to pick up the children before they all pitch in to prepare a vegan dinner for the family.

A post shared by Solomon Family (@nataliesuleman) on Aug 20, 2019 at 11:40am PDT

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“This is my adolescent infant Aidan. He is 14 years old, going on 1 in his head. Aidan is severely autistic and [needs] total care. He requires complete assistance in meeting all needs in activities of daily living,” she wrote on her Instagram on Wednesday, alongside a video of Aidan playing in the park.

“Aidan is non-verbal, requires feeding, changing (he is not potty trained), bathing, and one to one supervision, as he has no safety awareness and would walk aimlessly into traffic. I, his mother, am, and always have been, his ONLY care provider. This ‘job’ is my life (other than caring for 13 other children singlehandedly). My children are my LIFE.”

Suleman went on to share that after dropping 11 of her children off for their first day of school, she took Aidan to the park where he had a meltdown.

“He dropped to ground, threw water bottles, took off shoes and propelled those at my head,” she said. “As soon as we arrived home I bathed, changed and fed exhausted Aidan and held him until he fell asleep.”

Despite suffering relentless pain from a broken back caused by her octuplet pregnancy, Suleman said she continues to “physically care for her son, and will never give up on him”.

“I love him with all my heart, and will care for him until I die,” she wrote.

She concluded her post with the hashtags “AutismMom” and “ILoveMyFamily”.